US agency rejects military link to Vieques cancer

FILE - In this April 17, 2008 file photo, unexploded ordinance is blown up in a controlled demolition at the former U.S. Naval Training Range on Vieques island, Puerto Rico. A U.S. Agency has issued a long-awaited report saying it did not find any proof that decades of military activity in the Puerto Rican island of Vieques sickened residents who blame the federal government for high rates of cancer, asthma and other illnesses. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)
— AP

FILE - In this April 17, 2008 file photo, unexploded ordinance is blown up in a controlled demolition at the former U.S. Naval Training Range on Vieques island, Puerto Rico. A U.S. Agency has issued a long-awaited report saying it did not find any proof that decades of military activity in the Puerto Rican island of Vieques sickened residents who blame the federal government for high rates of cancer, asthma and other illnesses. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)
/ AP

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico 
A U.S. agency has issued a long-awaited report saying it found no proof that decades of military practice bombing on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques sickened residents who blame it for high rates of cancer, asthma and other illnesses.

The report was released this week and follows four previous assessments and several updates by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry that reached similar conclusions.

Local residents and officials, who blame the military for health problems, vowed to keep pushing the U.S. government for more studies analyzing the impact of the now-ceased Navy activity on Vieques, which lies east of the U.S. territory's main island. About 10,000 people live there.

The Navy occupied the island's eastern and western areas in 1941-2003, using it for warships and aircraft to practice firing live bullets, artillery rounds, rockets, missiles and bombs, according to the report.

The Navy has said its forces accidentally fired 263 rounds of ammunition tipped with depleted uranium in 1999, violating federal law.

That same year, a pilot dropped a bomb on an observation tower and killed a civilian, setting off years of angry protests that led President George W. Bush to end military activity on Vieques in 2003. The property once owned by the Navy is now a national wildlife refuge.

The U.S. has since removed more than 16.5 million pounds of munitions in a cleanup expected to last through at least 2025.

The U.S. agency's latest report on Vieques angered many on the island, including community leader and activist Robert Rabin.

"It's a repetition of a long line of administrations in Washington that have sought to relieve themselves of any liability or responsibility for the horrific environmental, health and economic damages caused by a half century of military presence and activities here," Rabin said in a phone interview.

The agency's director, Dr. Christopher Portier, said the 169-page report reached two conclusions: that there is credible evidence people in Vieques have poorer health than elsewhere in Puerto Rico and that scientists could not find a link between military operations and people's health.

The agency said that the public water supply was safe and that there were no air contaminants. However, it recommended additional soil testing in residential areas, stating there was still uncertainty about soil contamination because current data were inadequate.

Officials said they found mercury in local seafood, but blamed it on the general presence of the metal worldwide. They also noted that there were no unusually high concentrations of mercury in a fish sampling.

Officials said they did not analyze the possible effect of absorbing a mix of chemicals through food, air and water, saying they did not know the levels of chemicals that residents might have been exposed to.

The agency "recognizes the possibility that this report cannot address accurately the effects of mixtures and cumulative exposures on the health of Viequenses," the report stated.